As day turns to night a slumbering monster awakens from his den, as the creature heads out the entire reef goes deathly silent. None here would dare defy his royal eminence, well not while he was awake at the very least. It’s been a while since his last hunt and he picks up an uncanny smell. The smell reeks of that strange alien-like stench he smelt when that stupid monkey shattered his carapace. In his entire life, he had never felt such shame, his royal carapace had held against many of the dumb monkeys but that one not only managed to pierce his shell but leave a scar on it. Anger boiled in him as he set off to hunt and kill whatever it was that gave off the sent. He would first kill the creature with the strange smell and then he would make sure that he had his revenge against those monkeys.

CLACK! CLACK CLACK!

what the. I turn down to see what was making that sound and I see mother taking a very defensive position. She has extended her tentacles outward to make herself larger. The other octopuses noticed the sound and start to frantically move about trying to find a way out. There only one way out and it’s where mother I currently facing. Unable to stand idle one of my bigger siblings swim right up into the exit.

SNAP!

I see a massive claw and my panic sliced into two. The claw moved so fast I heard the sound of the snap before I even managed to see what had happened. The claw immediately retracts back out of the cave. W-What the he-

BOOM!

the cave shudders and large chunks of rocks are flung out. I see the claw and see it tear away at the opening of the cave. Mother hasn’t dropped her defensive pose and continues watching the opening of the cave as more chunks and fragments of the walls start to come off widening the opening. My siblings all start to panic and frantically move around trying to find an exit. Some of them have backed up into the back of the cave while others have huddled nearby mother. While this is all happening I remained transfixed by the sudden turn of events. I eventually snap out of it and the situation dawns upon me.

Something massive is trying to get into the caves, I saw a claw so could it be a crab? Wait aren’t octopuses the predators of crabs, doesn’t that mean mother should be able to handle this? Soon the crab stops grinding against the wall, I remember about my new skill [Inspect] and I use it on the claw that I see.

Race: King Crab

LvL: 13/75

HP:650/650

Rank: B-

what the f-fuck. You have to be kidding me. This guy is 5 alphabets above me, this is endgame boss material here. Even though my inspect is only level 1 the amount of information I’ve gotten is valuable. Incredible speed, the fact that it was shredding stone as if it was like cardboard and its rank being B- indicates a whole lot of nope. Wait if it’s B- what’s Mother’s level.

Race:Giant Reefback Octopus

LvL: 3/35

HP: 400/400

Rank: C

Dam, it’s rank is more than Mother’s but barely. That means mother has a chance right? I quickly swim to Mother’s side where many other octopuses are lying in wait. After the dust settles down an eerie silence took hold of the entire cave. Now with the entrance roughly 3 times its original size I can see a massive shadow against the dying light of the sun, it slowly moves towards us. Towering over even mother the massive crab makes an awful chittering sound as it trudges towards us. Mother instinctively raises her tentecles higher and start to push us away to the back of the cave with one of her tentacles. The crab is twice the size of mother and doesn’t even bother to try to intimidate mother, it simply watches her with its horrible beady eye and trudges closer.

In a blink of an eye, mother strike the crab, apparently she caught it off guard as it didn’t even react to her as she made the first move. The crab raises its pincer in an attempt to grab hold of mother, but she quickly maneuvers herself to the back of the crab where it’s pincers shouldn’t reach her. The crab tries to get a hold of mother but it’s too late she’s on its back. She then starts to bite away at the crab's carapace with her large beak. I breathe out a sigh of relief knowing that the crab can’t reach her as she attacks him. The crab didn’t even move and started to make a chittering sound as if it was laughing, mother senses something is amiss but before she can even do something the crab slams it’s back to the wall. The walls slightly shudder and mother accidentally let's loose of the crab. The crab then grabs mother with its pincer and cuts off one of her tentacles.

NO! I immediately take aim and use my skill [Acid Shot], before my eyes a small ball of acid is shoot out of my beak and hits the carapace of the crab.

[You have dealt 0 damage]

W-What. No damage at all, how tough is this thing I think to myself, I didn’t expect to do any significant damage but at least I expected to do 1 hp of damage. The crab notices my feeble attack but immediately turns away to face mother. While the crab was distracted by my attack mother picks up a large pointy rock and slams it down on the crab head. The rock immediately breaks apart and the crab goes back into chittering as if it tickled him. I immediately check Mother’s health and find out that she has lost 124 hp while the king crab has only lost 74.

Just how thick is this guys shell. Without wasting anymore time I shout out three more shots of acid before I’m unable to shoot anymore.

[You have dealt 0 damage]

Yeah, yeah I know I’m not doing any damage but at least I’m trying I complain.

[Acid shot lvl 1 has leveled up to lvl 2]

Finally some good news. The crab starts to get annoyed and then all of a sudden he slashes his claw down and all of a sudden a slash appears and moves straight in my direction. Shit, of course, this fucker has a skill, I luckily dodged that at the last moment bit rotating my body around but I got slightly cut.

[You have taken 1 damage]

[1 agility point has been awarded]

Right behind me, the slash continues moving a makes a noticeable cut on the wall. What the fuck is that skill! I call bullshit on this, dammit I lost 1 hp. It might not seem like much but when you have the total hp of 5 you have lost a fifth of your health. So let’s see, the dude's shell is near indestructible, it can shoot an op long-range attack and it’s pincers are death sentences, did I forget anything else? The crab shoots another one of those slash attacks at mother but she swiftly evades, my siblings on the other hand are a cut above the rest, literally. The larger of my siblings decide that they want to help and like little kamikaze planes they head straight right into the awaiting jaws of the crab. Most are either sliced in two or they get swatted and crushed by the claws. Some of them manage to take a bit into the crab but the crab doesn’t seem to be affected, instead, it seems to piss it off as it tries to rid of them.

The smarter ones like me take acid shots from afar where they’re safe but just like me, I don’t think they’re doing any sort of damage. During this confusion many baby octling escape, the crab doesn’t seem to care anymore and charges at mother. Mother left wounded and tired after many attempts to harm the crab in any actual significant way tries her best to escape from the charging crab but gets rammed by it. Think, think, what could you do to help mother, the ones that are trying to defend mother end up dying as they desperately try their best while the rest are taking this opportunity to escape. Maybe I should run away as well, they’re no way I’ll be able to help mother in my current state. While I debated with myself on how to deal with this situation I remember how mother would keep trying her best to help me even if it didn’t seem morally right to me. Dammit! I won’t be able to live with myself if I run away now. Maybe it was a need of belonging that fueled my desperate attack but it mattered not to me, I have to help mother one way or another. I swim as fast as I could towards the crab, by now all of my siblings have either been killed or have fled away from the scene. The crab slowly moves towards mother who got pinned by one of its pincers, it starts to chitter and slowly raises its other pincer up and before it can swing down at mother I bit into the crab's eye.

[You have dealt 15 damage]

[1 Agility point has been awarded]

[1 Strength point has been awarded]

[Posionous beak lvl 1 has leveled up]

Hah! take that you little shit, after being unable to deal any damage against the crab earlier I feel a huge wave of satisfaction from being able to damage it. The crab chitters in pain and let’s go of mother. Yes, I’ve done it, now we just have to exca-. Before I can even finish thinking the crab's massive pincers heads straight towards me, time seemed to slow down as the pincer slowly drew nearer and nearer, I knew that if I got hit it would be over for me, but no matter how hard I tried to move I couldn’t. The terror I felt as the pincers closed the distance between me was like a crushing mountain, I couldn’t even move or think.

[fear resistance lvl 1 has been acquired]

Right before the pincer hit me I saw a massive tentacle slam and push me away.

[You have taken 3 damage]

[You have lost more than half your health and as a result, been stunned]

what the... I try to see the surroundings but all I see is a blur. I can’t even think properly as I get swung across the cave and out into the open ocean. Wait, w-what ha-hap-happened. I then see mother wrapping herself across the face of the crab and biting it with all her remaining strength. Wh-why? Why would you give up your life like that? I’m felt stunned as I simply watch mother throw away her life. I see her continue fighting but it looks like she doesn’t have any more strength. N-no... I felt horribly afraid as I realize that she’s gonna die, and I try to swim to her as best as I can.

As I am swimming closer I meet Mother’s gaze and all I can see is the fire inside her fighting as she continues to fight a foe she can’t beat just to buy me time to escape. She knew she couldn’t win from the beginning yet she gave it her all trying to buy her family enough time to escape. I realized that she had swiped at me earlier to save my life so I could live. Why? I thought to myself. Why would she do that, she could’ve escaped and lived had she decided not to fight. I watched in fear and confusion as I look into those warm eyes reassuring me that it’ll be alright. I immediately turn my back and start to escape.

[Fear Resistance lvl 1 has leveled up]

I’m a coward I yell to myself, a bloody coward, I abandoned my own mother to die. As I swim away I swear I could feel tears coming out of my eyes. I promise I’ll average you mother, I promise...

What a strange one that child was. Unlike its siblings it didn’t want to eat the egg sacs at all, it even weirdly moved its tentacles when I first found him. I thought I was sick so I tried to encourage it to eat but it kept refusing to. I had to take him back to the egg sacs several times when he tried to leave the den. Who would have known that little brat would have fought that thing. It nearly even died when it bit its eye, thank goodness I was able to push him away, but it seemed like it wanted to continue fighting until I looked into his eyes and he finally got the message. I’m happy that my children can survive, especially that one.